Most of the information that you’ll find online says that it doesn’t happen with every phone. We’re wondering if it has something to do with the way your body is grounded? We don’t know the answer to the reception problems, but we do know that we can’t replicate the issue with any of the iPhones here in Cherry Creek.

Now for the yellowing of the screens.

There have been countless reports of people watching their yellow spots disappear with use. That means, we thought it was an LCD problem, but it’s more likely that it’s an adhesive issue with the screen assembly. Someone familiar with the adhesive (he pitched it to Apple) has been talking in the AppleInsider Forums explaining that the adhesive needs ample drying time before it looks clear. That makes perfect sense to us: the adhesive isn’t completely dry yet, people start using the phones and the yellow spots disappear. Perfect. If you’re one of the unlucky people who are seeing those yellow spots, leave your screen on full brightness and use the phone for a while… let us know if you see the spots disappear. We’re betting that you will.

Here’s the quote:

Apple is using a bonding agent called Organofunctional Silane Z-6011 to bond the layers of glass. Apparently, Apple (or more likely Foxconn) is shipping these products so quickly that the evaporation process is not complete. However, after one or two days of use, especially with the screen on, will complete the evaporation process and the yellow “blotches” will disappear. How do I know? I was involved in pitching Z-6011 to Apple.

***Update***

Apple has officially responded to the reception “issue.” I completely agree with them. Just don’t hold it in that one specific way that causes problems… it’s not like you hold it that way normally. We already told you that we couldn’t replicated it on any of the phones at the Apple Store, what more do you want? Seriously though, here’s the quote:

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

The problem comes with the iPhones that were delivered prematurely today by the delivery companies: they aren’t doing that well. Screen issues, reception issues, and scratches — oh, my! In all seriousness, we’re hoping that no one expected the phone to be unbreakable… the video below shows it isn’t. The manufacturing defects are the main cause for concern at this point. There are a lot of phones with bad displays (the infamous yellow tint is back).

Reception seems to be a hit or miss problem: holding the phone in your hand seems to create a loss of reception. Wireless experts have questioned the use of the iPhone 4′s bezel as the antenna since it was announced. Improper grounding — i.e. holding it in your hand — can definitely interfere with the wireless signal of the device. That seems to be happening to a lot of users who have already received their iPhones.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t get the iPhone 4; it looks pretty amazing. Carefully vet your decision, it may come back to break you… or your iPhone. Fixing the iPhone 4 will not be cheap. Definitely not the cheap glass replacements we’ve come to expect from the iPhone 3G and 3GS. You can pretty easily expect to pay $200 or more, just to replace the screen assembly. The assembly includes the glass, LCD and digitizer because they’re all glued together in the new iPhone. The labor to replace the parts will also be substantial… so don’t break it. Go get one of Apple’s bumpers, or a full case. Now.

While we fix every possible problem your iPhone could have, our top repairs are the glass replacements for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G[S]. In every generation — 1st, 2nd, and 3rd — Apple used tempered glass that was scratch-resistant but far from unbreakable. In the 3G[S], they introduced an oleophobic coating that helped prevent fingerprints and smudges… but it was just as breakable as the previous generations. iPhone 4 is more durable and unbreakable than any device Apple has ever introduced.

Starting with the stainless steel bezel of iPhone 4: it’s impressive from every standpoint. One part acts as your antenna for your GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi… the other acts as your antenna for your cellular signal. Any future reception issues will not be Apple’s fault; they made it very clear that iPhone 4 will have the best reception of any smartphone on the market. So, we can finally blame AT&T or other international carriers without any doubt.

Apple created a new, solid and very durable metal for the new iPhone. Apple explained it well in the iPhone 4 introduction video, “We developed an entirely new grade of stainless steel that, after machining, is incredibly strong but also remarkably precise.” Apple previously used a chrome bezel for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G[S]: it was the primary cause for broken glass in those generations. There was never enough ‘give’ or ‘flexibility’ within the bezel during a drop and, more often than not, the metal pushed into the glass and forced you to come knocking on our doors. In addition to the rubber gaskets found along the glass edges, Apple introduced three flex points around the bezel in iPhone 4. They define the different antennas in the phone and offer us a little more give if we ever drop the device.

Taking it a step further, Apple introduced a new manufacturing process for the Glass of iPhone 4… it’s nearly unbreakable. Referencing the introduction video, Apple states that it’s “comparable in strength to sapphire crystal and about 30 times harder than plastic.” We did a little bit a research and found that the sapphire crystal reference is absolutely amazing… we won’t bore you with specifics but if you’re interested in how durable it really is, take a look at this Wikipedia article. With the added give of the stainless steel bezel and the ridiculously durable glass, we may never need to repair the iPhone 4. Of course, that’s heavily dependent on how well we take care of our devices.

As an iPhone repair center, we do everything we can to keep our prices as low as possible… but with these technological advancements, we cannot imagine that glass/LCD repair will remain inexpensive. Apple reverted to 1st generation manufacturing practices with the screen assembly on iPhone 4: it’s all one piece.

Apple laminates the LCD, digitizer and glass together making them impossible to separate. Repair centers like us will be unable to save you the extra cost by replacing just the glass… we will have to replace the whole screen assembly. Apple currently charges $199 for screen assembly replacements while we can replace the glass for $99 (some repairs centers can offer this even cheaper due to bulk glass purchasing). Due to the new manufacturing process, the iPhone 4 screen assemblies will take a considerable amount of time to replace and the parts will be much more expensive. We’ll give you an update on pricing options once we’ve heard more from our suppliers. We don’t know what Apple’s accidental damage charges will be, but we’re not expecting it to be very cheap.

Overall, we feel as though Apple has taken tremendous steps in durability after receiving copious amounts of feedback from the last three generations of the iPhone. Is it unbreakable? No, but it’s pretty darn close.

We know that there are companies (some guy and his van) offering to replace your iPhone glass for $60. Be wary of that price! We actually purchase our glass at a hefty price to bring you “Apple-Original” glass. You can definitely find iPhone glass for $13 on eBay, but we don’t believe in bringing terrible knockoffs into our shop. $13 glass is not manufactured by Apple and it’s not made to the same specifications… you may very well end up with a non-functional iPhone because they’re using b-stock knockoffs.

Other companies in the area use the same glass we do and charge $200 to replace it. We don’t necessarily think that’s the best price for the customer, so we’ve drastically reduced our margins in order to bring you great quality glass and the lowest price you can get… for legitimate service.

We try to focus specifically on the iPhone 3G and 3GS due to the difficult design of the 1st generation iPhone. If you’re interested in a 1st generation screen replacement, it’s $249… you’re probably better of replacing the phone. In the first generation iPhone, the LCD, Digitizer and Glass are all one piece thus the higher price tag. Our suppliers have yet to bring prices down to where we can make this repair cost-effective, but we’ll let you know if we ever get there.

Anyone who knows about the tricky game of unlocking iPhones knows that this is a small victory for the mouse and big brother Apple (the cat) only has to fix the exploit injection hole to prevent future versions of the iPhone firmware from being unlocked.

Let’s back up a bit and talk about jailbreak and unlocking in general… First, jailbreaking is merely hacking the iPhone OS to allow custom code (unapproved by Apple) to run on the iPhone.  With a “Jailbroken” iPhone, you can do things like run multiple applications at the same time, tether your phone with carriers that don’t support it and even customize the look and feel with Winterboard.

An “Unlocked” iPhone is not only jailbroken, it also includes modification to the baseband (modem software) that allows it to work with any GSM carrier.  What does that really get you? Well, in the US it allows you to use an iPhone on T-Mobile.  You could also take that same iPhone overseas and purchase a Sim card from a local wireless provider essentially saving you substantial amounts of money when calling places internationally. Going back to the US unlocked iPhones – you’ll never be able to use 3G data on the T-Mobile network due to the differences in the frequency spectrum from AT&T to T-Mobile.  You would still have access to EDGE data: arguably close to 3G data speeds depending on your connection.

That’s old information, so what’s new?  For the last several months, people who wanted or use the unlock had to have iPhones that started the unlock at iPhone OS 3.0 because at 3.1 Apple changed the baseband (modem software) and a hack wasn’t available for it.  If you started at 3.0 and continued to update through non-official “hacked” firmware, you were fine.  Everyone who recently purchased a phone was just out of luck.  Most iPhones for the last several months had been shipping with firmware 3.1 or greater and the new baseband… thus making the phones invulnerable to previous unlocking procedures.

That all changed yesterday.  Boy-genius and iPhone hacker, Geohot, released his new unlocking tool called “blacksn0w” (that’s a zero not and oh).  This can be installed on any jailbroken iPhone straight from Cydia or by using his jailbreak software, “blackra1n” you can jailbreak brand new iPhones and then install the unlock.

Fair warning: unlocking an iPhone has become relatively safe but this unlock could still potentially cause irreversible harm to your iPhone if not done properly.  If you choose to unlock, you can NEVER upgrade to an official firmware from Apple after that.  You will always have to wait for the go-ahead from the hackers responsible for the unlock.

That said, Rocky Mountain Mac Repair does offer iPhone unlocking to those who don’t want to play with fire but like a warm supper.  Let me be VERY clear here: we’re not selling software, we’re not trying to fool you into unlocking your iPhone… we know exactly what to do and would love to help you with our expertise.  That said, if you decide to take advantage of this service, please have your iPhone backed up onto your computer before you bring it in: contacts, pictures, text messages… just plug it in, right-click and choose backup.  During the unlock procedures, it is possible that your data will be erased from the phone.  As long as it’s backed up, that won’t matter.  To those brave enough to perform the unlock, we salute you.